richardsphere

[richardsphere]

[richardsphere]

[richardsphere]

I believe that certain superstitions might have had a basis at some point, that then grew beyond its reasonable scope with bards and folkorists. IE: Dowsing with a little dangly rope isnt magic, but the dangly rope provides a 'True Down' that, to an ancient person searching for water in uneven arboreal regions where a leafy overgrowth hides the sky and trees might not grow straight-up, is an incredibly valuable bit of information. (meanwhile 'forked twig' dowsing might only generate random data, but its a limited-random data that excludes both 'Here' and 'Where you just came from' so it got them out of a local minimum, kept up morale, and the false-positives did the rest) But actual supernatural shit? No. Souls and afterlife are just a way for cultleaders to have another 'tomorrow' to not-pay-you-back on. Umbrella's inside create bad luck, because its a rapidly expanding spring mechanism in a foyer filled with breakable stuff. Black cats arent bad luck, but the shock of a small black blur running past you at speed might make you trip.

[richardsphere]

Was doing fic draft, and my brain connected dots in a way I hope isnt cannon but cant deny is SUS AF.

So... Audrey has a big running gag of not remembering her daughters' names. She is, objectively, absolutely incompetent in that regard. To the point where it casts doubt wether she even knows what Chloe looks like when her husband isn't explicitly reminding her she has a daughter. Zoe is currently at the centre of a big 'I know who you truly are beneath the mask' thing. And has a personality that many say is just 'A version of Chloe designed for Marinette to trust'. Which made Marinette consider her as the perfect replacement bee. (and her hero-name is wasp-themed, which is in-universe villaincoding) Lila has at least 3, possibly more, mothers (all of whom are implied to be similarly distant). Is allegedly supposed to be some master manipulator, wants to steal the miraculi, and knows (like everyone in the universe) that Chloe was fired as QB and the bee needed a replacement. And is at the center of the authors big, deliberate 5-red-herring tease about 'Which NPC is secretly Lila in Disguise' I think that, when you put the facts out in that order... Im honestly shocked i havent seen 5 different Lila=Zoe AU's. (I think there is honestly more evidence for Zoe=Lila then there is Aglae, Sublime or Lucky Clovergirl)

[richardsphere]

The biggest sign of Adrien being written like an object instead of a person is how the show handles him being controlled.

Like, when "bad guys" are controlling Adrien by manipulating him, lying to him, brainwashing him or by using his magic remote controls we are clearly meant to feel sad for Adrien and angry at those harming him.

But when "good guys" do the same thing, including the protagonist of the show, we aren't meant to question it. We are meant to accept that good guys controlling Adrien is a good thing for everyone, including Adrien.

Meaning that the message the show sends isn't "Adrien being controlled is bad" but rather "Adrien being controlled by the bad guys is bad."

This type of writing would only make sense if Adrien was an object, a tool, not a human being with personhood.

I mean, "it's not the thing being done that's bad, but who's doing it" is something that comes up a lot in the show. It's the closest thing to a theme that Miraculous even has.

As for Adrien's writing, what happened is the writers basically went, "Well, the female damsel in distress is a tired trope, but gender-flipping that trope must be good, right?", ignoring the fact that the problem with the passive damsel that only exists to be saved isn't that it happens to female characters, it's that it boils down what's supposed to be a person with thoughts and dreams into nothing more than a shiny McGuffin. Yeah, it's worse when it happens to female characters because women are expected to be passive, it's still a shitty way to write any character regardless of gender. It's also especially shitty to stick it on a character who's already been traumatized into being passive and obedient. Basically, it's a case of the writers understanding that a trope is bad, but not why it's bad or how to subvert it well.

[richardsphere]

Doing some light renovations around the appartment, bought myself some painters pants. They're like cargopants on steroids, I think we should just wear these on the regular. They're so functional? I can fit an entire 1L bottle of soda in one of these compartments without even the tiniest inconvenience!

[richardsphere]

By the way, the prosecution just violated Luigi Mangione's HIPAA rights and I have not seen people talking much about it

[richardsphere]

One of the coolest things in DK Bananza is how the Voxel/material system interacts with enemy types. Because every enemy (that i can think of), is made of material. Which means only a dozen-ish enemies is enough, because it becomes combinatorics. Because the Crockroids can be made of any material, there are as many types of Crockroids as there are materials. Its a very refreshing take on the 'Squirrel, Red squirrel, blue squirrel, green squirrel, Black Death Squirrel' phenomenon.

[richardsphere]

10000 YEAR OLD ROCK ART OF GIRAFFES FOUND IN LIBYA LET'S GO

[richardsphere]

Doing Yuletide Giftplanning. Want something that involves creativity on my part, but also replicates well for gifting the same thing to multiple family members. Was thinking making custom lego-sets.

I got the Scream down to aprox 16 USD, and am extremely proud of the elbows. But im just not feeling it...

[richardsphere]

[richardsphere]

so like... Why does Nooroo know how to make Antikuma's again? (besides 'so we can pretend Lila is a more credible threat then Gabe') Like wasnt there a whole thing with Tiki mentioning that the kwami were never allowed to know how to make power-ups, so why the fuck is Nooroo an exception? Its not like Gabe told him, because 1-Gabe never interacts with nooroo, 2-if gabe knows its because its in the Booknotes, and Lila has the booknotes so she wouldnt need to ask Nooroo.

[richardsphere]

shorthands for dumbassery that i have grown to love deeply

"how dare you say we piss on the poor" in response to someone misinterpreting your post

"_ isnt gonna fuck you" for suck up behavior

"woah. should we tell everyone? should we throw a party?" for who the fuck cares

"and what if the world was made of pudding" for when would this ever matter.

"and sharks are smooth both ways" for a group of people heatedly arguing with 1 guy who is fucking with them all

".. but its about a witch in the alps finding her lost cat" for someone trying to sanitize something to the point of absurdity

[richardsphere]

[richardsphere]

Missed the Nintendo Stream cause work. Watching now

Missed the stream, watching now.

Timetravel katamari… cool for fans but I doubt the timetravel gimick is gonna add much (besides dev-time as they cant reuse assets due to anachronism) Just Dance, look if its still selling thats nice for fans Im not attached to the DBZ IP, but i do suspect that motioncontrolls in a fighting game are not gonna be used much. I apreciate the idea of letting fans do the spiritball by putting their hands in the air, but thats a gimick with a very short halflife. Plants VS Zombies, its weird that this franchise actually has die-hard fans. It feels like it should be in that 'candy crush'-zone of 'people play it because its familiar, not because they care' so its nice to see it go back to its roots after it went FPS for a bit. football... its just football not much to say, i hope the sporters got properly compensated for their likeness. Hope y'all spend that check on something fun. Pacman, huh... well if they're still making Pacman games thats good for them. FFTactics.. expanded remake... Persona 3... ... really hope they're carefull about that if its gonna be on the E-shop or a shared family account... This feels like a 'American 4yo imitates family switch-game with dads revolver' headline waiting to happen.

The warriors guys are still close friends with Zelda. Thats nice, the first game was good, and though i didnt get around to the Age of Calamity one, i just think Warriors has a good, franchisable formula. More IP's getting the warriors treatment please. Like if any studio/gameplay formula deserves to go Full Telltale. Its these guys. Handegg. Its handegg, Tom Hanks from Castaway Simulator. Looks interesting? I have no idea what the intended audience is. But it certainly looks interesting? Hela... I think it looks dumb. the charactermodel is awkward, doesnt integrate with the environment and everything about the way this game looks feels dissonent. Nice graplinghook though. Star Wars Outlaws... its a star wars prequel with Jabba, the cannonically-going-to-survive-this as your primary antagonist. So i doubt you'll get to feel much of that 'rebellious freedom' that the name and establishing shot seek to imply. Timegun: This game looks generic and blandpocalypse. And though the 'monsters can eat eachothers corpses and level up' mechanic is an interesting concept, i think it's probably going to either 1-be way too easy to dispose of corpses for it to be meaningfull 2-be overdone to the point of tedium. I do not foresee any middleground. 'Extracting essence of the people you meet in the past', so we're the ones making the 'monsters born of the remnants of humanity'. Please try not to put your plottwist in the trailer next time. Yakuza... i've got nothing. Good for its fans. Hope y'all have fun beating people with firehydrants on the way to your friday night Karaoke sessions. Funko Basketball looks more interesting then human basketball, thats for sure. Hello kitty. I still cant believe that the angry raccoon is a Sanrio property. The adventures of elliot... im going to be honest it took me a long time to realise this wasnt an octopath sequel-trailor focussing perhaps too long on a single character. Looks fun, asymetric multiplayer options are always cool, and im a sucker for pixies in leaf-dresses. Actual Octopath... cool for fans but I dont think i'll ever play '8 differnet tutorials'-the game... but the idea of a JRPG with Fallout 4 town-building is interesting at least.

[richardsphere]

(me, my parents, my sister, and the baby are sitting at the kitchen table eating lunch)

baby, pointing at the light fixture over the table and signing "on": o.*

my sister: we actually can't turn that light on right now, because the lightbulb inside is burnt out! it needs a new one.

baby: ighbu.

sister: yes, lightbulb! granddaddy said after we eat he's going to climb up there on a ladder and change it, and then the light will come on!

baby: gadada! adda, uuu! ighbu o!

sister: exactly!

baby, signing "on" and pointing at the light and then my dad, with increasing urgency: GADADA ADDA UUUU. O.

my sister: we're going to finish eating first though, ok?

baby: nonono. O. gadada adda uuu.

[a split second goes by]

baby, pointing to himself: ba. adda uuu. ighbu.

me: you're going to climb the ladder and change the lightbulb yourself?

baby: dzyeah. *pointing to the buckle where he is buckled into the high chair* ububu.

me: unbuckle you? so you can change the lightbulb?

baby, highly businesslike: dzyeah.

*pronounced like "on" without the n

[richardsphere]

Speculating for Watsonian reasons that the writers probably didnt think about themselves, but i personally headcannon because i think it makes sense: The ring and earrings are not just the most versatile, but also the nature of their specific powers has a unique caveat amongst the miraculi we've seen. The Lucky Charm explicitly works under the 'what you need not what you want'-magic system. (and Cataclysm is implied to work the same, hence why it goes from Destroy a Universe to shortcircuit a bus in a way that opens a door). WYN-NWYW is the most powerfull type of magic in all of narrative fiction. Like seriously, its the one OP magic-type that competent writers don't even give to the villains of their stories, its usually plot magic not people magic, limited to Hermit Mentors and once-an-age magical wishes. (at least writers of shows that want to have stakes dont give this type of magic to characters, IE: Micky Mouse Clubhouse and the Mousekatool get a pass because they're not trying to sell a sense of danger.) This means that the Ladybug and Black Cat come with a degree of in-built idiotproofing that prevents accidental mis-use for newbie heroes, that other miraculous dont get. For an in-show example of how this works: Even when Mr. Bug goes on the obvious instinct to use a mirror against Reflekdoll, this inate 'newby-proofing' still gives him 'what he needs' (coin shaped object that can be used as an improvised screwdriver) Every other miraculous would have required Fu to get onto the field to help the newbies get used to their power and use them wisely until they build up the experience to have proper judgement with the powers,but the rings and earrings prevent him from having to.

Here’s a quick but necessary question: why is the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous even out? I know for the plot but from a logical standpoint it doesn’t really make sense to have both out especially when they’re the main targets of Monarch, and by keeping them out you incentivize him to do more evil against Paris.

In the movie it at least was explained by Tikki and Plagg making the choice rather than Fu, and that together they make each other stronger. In the show, though I got nothing. Sure Ladybug is useful, but the Black Cat is more often that not a liability in the situations and Fu chose them vs having no choice. Honestly, if Ladybug and Chat Noir stopped appearing or at all, then Hawkmoth would have no reason to continue attacking Paris

---

I do actually think that the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous come with the most versatile powers, so that could be it. The ability to create something once per fight and the ability to destroy something once per fight are both powers that can be taken advantage of in a moment’s notice in a way the other powers can't. It's really super risky to have those Miraculous out every time, though, although it did lessen the pressure on Fu, since Hawk Moth didn't make finding the Guardian a priority.

Maybe Fu just wanted the biggest burden off his shoulders! It's been a while since we bullied Fu on this blog so let's go with that!